United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

On Sun., Apr. 11, at 2:00 p.m., Richard Becker will speak about his book Palestine, Israel and U.S. Empire (PSL Publications, 2009) at King's Books in Tacoma (218 St. Helens Ave.).[1]  --  Becker first visited the Middle East in 1986.  --  He has returned many times and has written and produced books and videos on Palestine and on Iraq....

Joe La Sac, who is well-known to most local activists, is part of a May Day moblization group announcing an afternoon May 1 celebration in Tacoma of International Worker's Day, or May Day.[1] ...

A mostly favorable account of the UFPPC-IVAW-VFP rally and march Friday afternoon appeared in Saturday's News Tribune (Tacoma, WA).[1]  --  The article was accompanied by a photograph of marchers heading south on Pacific Avenue in which UFPPC stalwart and organizer extraordinaire Sallie Shawl can be seen in the center, as well as several UFPPC signs (link below).  --  The article was one of the more sympathetic pieces on UFPPC that the News Tribune has published in the course of seven years of war (UFPPC came into existence in November 2002, during the run-up to the Iraq war).  --  Kris Sherman began by quoting UFPPC regular Burk Ketcham, who said:  “The Iraq War is illegal, and the Afghanistan War is illegal.”  --  As of Saturday morning, two comments to Sherman's article had been posted, one hostile ("Please tell Mr. George Bentley of Everett [the lone counterprotestor] 'THANK YOU' for supporting our troops. Our guys and gals fighting in the war don't need to hear or see protesters; what they need is unconditional love and support, not to be made to feel as those in the Vietnam War were.  Thank you, thank you, Mr. Bentley.') and one sympathetic ("If I were in the area, I would have happily stood with those patriots from United for Peace of Pierce County.  They have been standing up against our illegal wars from the start.  Thanks, keep up the good work.").  --  COMMENT: The spectacular spring weather and clear views of distant peaks and the beautiful Tacoma cityscape on Friday afternoon made the Pacific Avenue overpass a spectacular spot for an antiwar protest.  --  Many friendly honks and waves from the slow-moving traffic beneath the bridges (the overpasses north and south of Pacific Ave. were also bannered) lifted the spirits of protesters.  --  Tacoma police were professional and cooperative, blocking streets and the bridge for the duration of the march....

The way we live now:  Northrop Grumman and EADS dropped out on Monday, so Boeing is "the likely winner of one of the Pentagon's largest contracts," probably ultimately on the order of $100 billion, the New York Times reported on Monday.[1]  --  The news came only four (count 'em, four) days after our own Norm Dicks (D-WA 6th) was, as expected, elected to succeed the late John Murtha (D-PA 12th), as head of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.[2]  --  Attaining the chairmanship of this panel has been the lodestar of the one-time UW footballer and Warren Magnuson protégé for decades, since the subcommittee "controls half of the discretionary spending in the federal budget, to the tune of $708 billion for 2011," as Kyung Song noted.  --  (Boeing shares have risen about 16% since Murtha died, compared to a rise of about 6.5% of the Dow, in which Boeing is of course included, in the same period, and it's a safe bet that they will rise further.)  --  Dicks's hometown paper, the News Tribune, took a stab at pretending that Boeing might still lose the contract.[3]  --  But Les Blumenthal gave the game away:  he also reported that Dicks is pushing to scrap the bidding process altogether and "just negotiate a contract directly with Boeing."  --  COMMENT: Only two years ago Rich Thomas was chortling about Boeing's having (supposedly) failed to get the very same contract, writing:  "Boeing's arrogance and corruption lost them the contract, and to overturn the results of the open bidding to provide the USAF with a new tanker would be rewarding their misdeeds."  --  Repeat:  "rewarding their misdeeds."  --  Repeat:  "rewarding their misdeeds."  --  Now repeat "rewarding their misdeeds" 99,999,999,997 times more....

Nominated for best documentary in the 2010 Academy Awards, "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers" will open in Tacoma on Fri., Mar. 12.  --  Tacoma's Grand Cinema has announced that co-director Rick Goldsmith will be on hand at the Grand to discuss the film on Sat., Mar. 13 (see below for details).[1]  --  The film has alread won a special jury award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, a Best Documentary audience award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and the Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review, USA.  --  The last words of the trailer are Daniel Ellsberg saying:  "It wasn't that we were on the wrong side.  We were the wrong side."  --  NOTE: It was Henry Kissinger who called Ellsberg "the most dangerous man in America." ...

Hopes that the Winter Olympics would cause the Pacific Northwest to "draw closer, deepening environmental, economic, and cultural connections" have been dashed by a U.S.-Canada border that "has become more rigid than ever," the New York Times reported Saturday.[1]  --  As a result, "dreams of a united Cascadia remain just that."  --  "[A]s of last June, anyone entering the United States by land from Canada must show a passport, including United States citizens.  Border crossings often take longer even as their number has declined," William Yardley said.  --  COMMENT: What the New York Times left out: exaggerated national security state imperatives constricting cross-border traffic.  --  For example:  UFPPC member Tom McCarthy was illegitimately prevented from entering Canada two weeks ago.  --  Stopped at the border, he was questioned, vehicle-searched, and turned back, all because he had had the temerity to engage local police in defense of the First Amendment; no charges were ever filed, but Tom's freedom of movement was taken away by the national security state, at least temporarily.[2] ...

A dramatic reading of the controversial 2005 play My Name Is Rachel Corrie will be performed at 7:00 p.m. on Wed., Mar. 3, in Kilworth Chapel, on the campus of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA.[1]  --  The play is based on edited diaries and emails written by Rachel Corrie (1979-2003), who died from wounds inflicted by an armored Caterpillar bulldozer in the Gaza Strip.  --  The role of Rachel Corrie will be performed by Angelica Duncan, a graduate of Tacoma School of the Arts who received her B.F.A. in Acting from Ithaca College in 2009.  --  Another veteran actor, Michael Storlee, will perform as "the Reporter."  --  Some additional information sent on by Nancy Farrell is posted below.[2]  --  BACKGROUND: For an idea of the controversies this play has provoked, see here for the astonishingly nasty attack on the play that a doyenne of the American literary scene, Cynthia Ozick, unleashed in 2006, as well as a spirited defense of the play by Starhawk....

Steve and Kristi Nebel will appear in concert in Tacoma at 3:00 p.m. on Sun., Feb. 21, in a benefit for the DVD being produced about last summer's trip Journey of Repentance to Hiroshima.[1]  --  Father Bill Bichsel, the 81-year-old radical activist Jesuit priest, widely known as "Bix," who has won the respect and love of an entire community here in Pierce County and who is also a Journey of Repentance participant, said in a message that the project aimed "to raise the consciousness of the need for people to work for abolition of nuclear weapons."[2] ...

Washington Public Campaigns urges you to act immediately to encourage Washington State senators to pass SB 5912, which would provide public financing for elections of the justices of the Washington Supreme Court.[1]  --  Contact information for your legistator is available here....

Fifty-four percent of Americans think torture is "sometimes" or "often" justified, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (Harper's Index, March 2010).  --  On Wednesday, the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WRSCAT) will co-sponsor a showing of "The Response," a 30-minute film on Guantanamo; a panel of speakers will discuss the issues raised by the film, including Arsalan Bukhari, the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Washington, and Joseph McMillan, from the Perkins Coie legal defense team for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's personal driver.[1]  --  The film was shortlisted for the 2010 Academy Awards.[2] ...